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One of three defendants accused of killing a clerk at a South Side convenience store has backed
out of an agreement to plead guilty in the case.

Darrell Durham, 18, decided that the prosecution’s offer of a 15-year prison sentence is “too
much” considering his level of involvement in the crime, defense attorney Frederick Benton said
yesterday in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.

Judge Tim Horton said he will set a trial date for Durham, who is charged in the July 24
shooting death of Imran Ashgar, 34, at the Convenience Plus Food Mart on E. Livingston Avenue.

Durham and Nathaniel L. Brunner, 18, are charged with aggravated murder and aggravated robbery,
and Devonere Simmonds, 17, is charged with delinquency counts of the same crimes in the shooting.
Prosecutors have filed a motion asking a Juvenile Court judge to transfer Simmonds’ case to adult
court.

Police say surveillance video from the store shows the three walking in about 11 p.m. and
Simmonds immediately shooting the clerk in the face with a handgun.

If Durham eventually goes to trial, a defendant’s agreement that he signed will become evidence
that can be used against him, Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said.

Benton confirmed that Durham signed such an agreement, in which a defendant agrees to plead
guilty and testify against others in the case in exchange for a lesser sentence.

O’Brien said the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that the statements made in the process of
obtaining such agreements “may be used against the defendant at a subsequent trial if he reneges on
the agreement.”

The decision grew out of an appeal filed by Robert W. Bethel Jr., a former Columbus gang member.
He was convicted in 2003 of killing two teenagers in a Prairie Township cornfield and sentenced to
death after he defied a plea agreement by refusing to testify against an accomplice.

Simmonds and Brunner face additional charges in a weeklong string of shootings that concluded on
July 27, when a man was shot and wounded in a carjacking at a Madison County truck stop. Durham is
charged only in the convenience-store shooting.